By Kate Miller-Corcoran, Food as Medicine Coordinator
The Food as Medicine program of the Food and Health Network works with healthcare providers throughout the Southern Tier to create better health outcomes for patients diagnosed with diet-related chronic health conditions.
“Poor diet, exacerbated by food insecurity, is now the leading cause of death and disease in the United States,” according to the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School. “Individuals with low incomes and those dealing with food insecurity can be especially at risk for poor nutrition, due to additional factors associated with inadequate household resources as well as under-resourced communities. Food is Medicine services such as medically tailored meals, medically tailored groceries, and produce prescription programs have become increasingly powerful and cost-effective interventions to prevent and treat diet-related chronic conditions, improve household food security, and address health disparities.”
Currently, the Food and Health Network runs one of the country’s longest-standing Produce Prescription (PRx) programs. Please click here to see a map of PRx programs currently funded by the USDA along with participating clinics and vendors.
The Journal of the American Heart Association reports that “national implementation of produce prescription programs for the estimated 6.5 million Americans who have both diabetes and food insecurity could avert 292,000 cardiovascular events and add 260,000 quality-adjusted life years” — a measure of how well a treatment lengthens or improves patients’ lives — over a lifetime, while being highly cost effective from a health care system perspective and cost-saving from a societal perspective.
Throughout the 2023-24 season (May 23- March 24) the economic impact of the Produce Rx program was $229,750, as you can see below. The impact from farm-direct sales was $114,701. Click on the photo below to see more detail.
Interested in becoming a vendor for Produce Rx? Here’s a link with more information
